iM 4,1-14,4 2011 iMac Graphics Card Upgrade

[antoniomac]

Hi, I need to understand some details.
Imac 27 2010 MXM-A not to change the cooling
I have no special needs
I found the K2100M on the web but I would like info on the memories.
On the first page I found BIOS for ELPIDA RAM
So the K2100M with Hynix and Samsung memories don't work?
Sorry for my misunderstanding

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi Sorry for out of topic.

My spec is iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
I had upgrade my CPU from 3.1 Ghz Intel Core i5 to 3.4 Ghz Intel Core i7 as well.
But my Imac run slower than before.

Do you have these problem? or do you do any extra setting after upgrade the CPU?

Check if you have re-connected all thermal sensors including the LCD one. If a single sensor is missing the CPU will not boost any longer and sticks at 1,6GHz.
Check all sensors with tools like HW Monitor or iStat or other.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Hi, I need to understand some details.
Imac 27 2010 MXM-A not to change the cooling
I have no special needs
I found the K2100M on the web but I would like info on the memories.
On the first page I found BIOS for ELPIDA RAM
So the K2100M with Hynix and Samsung memories don't work?
Sorry for my misunderstanding

Sometimes we have more than one vBIOS to support different memory.
There are two BIOS links, first link leads to vBIOS for Samsung and Hynix, second one to the vBIOS for Elpida.

 

[nikey22]

Experimental AMD FirePro M6100 2GB (AMD R9 M380)

This thread will chronicle my efforts to get the AMD FirePro M6100 MXM 3.0 card working on a 2009/2010 iMac. I've been working on it for several months. I will concentrate on the older iMacs as the 2011 iMacs have an issue with the "wake" cycle not recognizing the GPU and make this card nearly unusable.

This card is used internally in a iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), model Identifier: iMac17,1

SSH Access:

Adapter  0    SEG=0000, BN=01, DN=00, PCIID=66401002, SSID=00000000)
    Asic Family        :  Bonaire
    Flash Type         :  M25P10/c    (128 KB)
    Product Name       :  Dell / Compal Brooks Saturn XT C60001 A1 GDDR5 2GB 300e/150m   <-- card recognized!
    Bios Config File   :  BR44933.001
    Bios P/N           :  P/N Not Available
    Bios Version       :  015.040.000.001.044933
    Bios Date          :  10/02/13,10:35:3
    ROM Image Type     :  Hybrid Images
    ROM Image Details  :
        Image[0]: Size(65024 Bytes), Type(Legacy Image)           <-- legacy vbios recognized!
        Image[1]: Size(61440 Bytes), Type(EFI Image)              <-- PCI option ROM/UEFI recognized!

MacOS integration:
This card uses the AMD8000Controller.kext and the AMDBonaireGraphicsAcccelerator - RadeonX4000.kext which also natively runs in MacOS. The AMDMTLBronzeDriver is used to initialize its Metal capability. The default framebuffer is in use: RadeonFrameBuffer.

You will like need to apply the same Device Properties as previously stated in other posts <@Ausdauersportler> here recently.

Mods:
- I modified the OBJ table to work with our current iMac models: eDP:14, EncoderID:21, I2CID:92, SenseID:03.
- I used the IM17,1 Header to trick AppleGraphicsPolicy into accepting it as native
- I used an IM17,1 VGA bootloader firmware instead of the stock Dell one and adjusted the pointer to the parser-fall-call in the TVdispout table to point to the correct area in the patched bootloader.
- I used a PC UEFI GOP to communicate with OC and/or OCLP, so you will not get a native MacOS boot picker screen, but instead the OC one.
- GPIO_Pin_LUT has 6 pin assignments for Dell ROM, there are 8 defined in the Apple ROM. This was patched.
- In EFI 1.x systems, the INT 10H and the VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE) are replaced by the EFI UGA protocol. In the more widely used UEFI 2.x systems, the INT10H and the VBE are replaced by the UEFI GOP which is what we are using here to communicate with OpenCore or OCLP using device properties.

The card is recognized as an 'HD8xxx', but that doesn't matter. With the proper OperCore config file, it should be recognized appropriately. I have only tested with High Sierra and Catalina:

Thermal IC chip:
The SMC "0" SMBus Connections on the iMac uses a write address of: 0x98 for the 8-bit SMC slave address. This is equivalent to a 0x4C 7-bit slave address:

0x98 = 1001 1000
0x4C = 0100 1100  (you can see that the 7-bit address is just bit-shifted to the right by 1)

So a GPU card with a ADM1032 thermal IC with a part marking "T1J" seems to work because it communicates on the 0x4C SMC address and will not cause an address collision with other thermal ICs on the logic board. In contrast, an ADM1032 chip with a part marking "T1C" is internally connected to 0x4D and therefore will not communicate with the imac SMC. An EMC1402-1 chip has a slave address of 1001_100 (corresponding to 7-bit 0x4C) and theoretically should also work, but there could be other interactions that are interfering with this. More investigation is necessary.

10/25/2021 addendum:
@dfranetic has pointed out correctly that the SMC information is not being read correctly by this chip, ADM1032. It appears that Mac Fan Control queries the thermal IC directly and not the SMC lane. So back to the drawing board! Sometimes sounds theories don't turn out as we expect in reality

Here is Macs Fan Control:


Let's take a closer look at this IC:

You can see here, that it uses 2 Jumper resistors (lime green) to connect the SCL and SDA lines to the GPU. The pull up resistors are right next to them, both are 100KOhm I believe. I will as an experiment remove these 0 Ohm resistors and see what happens to the GPU temp read out, stay tuned. More research here is necessary.


Benchmark:


Other members have been working on variants of this card, but be warned, these are experimental in nature and still have a lot of troubleshooting to get them working appropriately. They are painful to recover from a bad flash. It's been a long frustrating road with these class of cards, but nevertheless, it has always been insanely great!

Enjoy.
​

**** change notes:
M6100_Elpida.rom - This is for M6100 cards with Elpida VRAM.
11-20-2022 - GPIO_Pin_LUT as pointed out by @dfranetic is incorrectly set to Apple, switching back to original. New rom, (M6100_iMacGOP_r2.rom) & (M6100_Elipda_r2.rom), reflecting changes.

 

[CY Yong]

Check if you have re-connected all thermal sensors including the LCD one. If a single sensor is missing the CPU will not boost any longer and sticks at 1,6GHz.
Check all sensors with tools like HW Monitor or iStat or other.

Thanks for advice.
I first time heard of this, let me do some research on it and comeback to you later. Thanks alot

Check if you have re-connected all thermal sensors including the LCD one. If a single sensor is missing the CPU will not boost any longer and sticks at 1,6GHz.
Check all sensors with tools like HW Monitor or iStat or other.

I guess you are correct, I see it's lock at 1.6GhZ, so I need to open it and check which sensor is not connected?

 

[CY Yong]

I had google some similar cost, it's say that the LCD cable faulty, and they can solve with replace a new LCD cable.
I'm going to give it a try

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I had google some similar cost, it's say that the LCD cable faulty, and they can solve with replace a new LCD cable.
I'm going to give it a try

Please, read the first post carefully, check the section about hardware problems and this post and check all the cables internally and the L5500 coils as described there.

You can use software to read all temp sensors in advance and if one is broken or disconnected how should a display cable replacement fix this?

You need to open the iMac to reset cables or check the L5500.

Add a signature to your account reflecting your hardware and problem as other did before. I am tired ot scrolling back several pages to search for the details again and again.

 

[ElCani]

Check if you have re-connected all thermal sensors including the LCD one. If a single sensor is missing the CPU will not boost any longer and sticks at 1,6GHz.
Check all sensors with tools like HW Monitor or iStat or other.

I had google some similar cost, it's say that the LCD cable faulty, and they can solve with replace a new LCD cable.
I'm going to give it a try

Follow the advice to check all the temperature sensor connectors. It’s easy to do. I have experienced CPU throttling from badly inserted LCD temp cable, I possibly even had it upside down.

 

[CY Yong]

Please, read the first post carefully, check the section about hardware problems and this post and check all the cables internally and the L5500 coils as described there.

You can use software to read all temp sensors in advance and if one is broken or disconnected how should a display cable replacement fix this?

You need to open the iMac to reset cables or check the L5500.

Add a signature to your account reflecting your hardware and problem as other did before. I am tired ot scrolling back several pages to search for the details again and again.

Ok, let me go through the page again.
Thanks for your guide by the way.

 

[CY Yong]

Follow the advice to check all the temperature sensor connectors. It’s easy to do. I have experienced CPU throttling from badly inserted LCD temp cable, I possibly even had it upside down.

Yup, i had it double checked.
So far all the connector are in correct position, but still lock at 1.6ghz

 

[dfranetic]

Experimental AMD FirePro M6100 2GB (AMD R9 M380)

View attachment 1876272

This thread will chronicle my efforts to get the AMD FirePro M6100 MXM 3.0 card working on a 2009/2010 iMac. I've been working on it for several months. I will concentrate on the older iMacs as the 2011 iMacs have an issue with the "wake" cycle not recognizing the GPU and make this card nearly unusable.

This card is used internally in a iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), model Identifier: iMac17,1

SSH Access:

Adapter  0    SEG=0000, BN=01, DN=00, PCIID=66401002, SSID=00000000)
    Asic Family        :  Bonaire
    Flash Type         :  M25P10/c    (128 KB)
    Product Name       :  Dell / Compal Brooks Saturn XT C60001 A1 GDDR5 2GB 300e/150m   <-- card recognized!
    Bios Config File   :  BR44933.001
    Bios P/N           :  P/N Not Available
    Bios Version       :  015.040.000.001.044933
    Bios Date          :  10/02/13,10:35:3
    ROM Image Type     :  Hybrid Images
    ROM Image Details  :
        Image[0]: Size(65024 Bytes), Type(Legacy Image)           <-- legacy vbios recognized!
        Image[1]: Size(61440 Bytes), Type(EFI Image)              <-- PCI option ROM/UEFI recognized!

MacOS integration:
This card uses the AMD8000Controller.kext and the AMDBonaireGraphicsAcccelerator - RadeonX4000.kext which also natively runs in MacOS. The AMDMTLBronzeDriver is used to initialize its Metal capability. The default framebuffer is in use: RadeonFrameBuffer.

You will like need to apply the same Device Properties as previously stated in other posts <@Ausdauersportler> here recently.

Mods:
- I modified the OBJ table to work with our current iMac models: eDP:14, EncoderID:21, I2CID:92, SenseID:03.
- I used the IM17,1 Header to trick AppleGraphicsPolicy into accepting it as native
- I used an IM17,1 VGA bootloader firmware instead of the stock Dell one and adjusted the pointer to the parser-fall-call in the TVdispout table to point to the correct area in the patched bootloader.
- I used a PC UEFI GOP to communicate with OC and/or OCLP, so you will not get a native MacOS boot picker screen, but instead the OC one.
- GPIO_Pin_LUT has 6 pin assignments for Dell ROM, there are 8 defined in the Apple ROM. This was patched.
- In EFI 1.x systems, the INT 10H and the VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE) are replaced by the EFI UGA protocol. In the more widely used UEFI 2.x systems, the INT10H and the VBE are replaced by the UEFI GOP which is what we are using here to communicate with OpenCore or OCLP using device properties.

The card is recognized as an 'HD8xxx', but that doesn't matter. With the proper OperCore config file, it should be recognized appropriately. I have only tested with High Sierra and Catalina:



View attachment 1876252


View attachment 1876257


Thermal IC chip:
The SMC "0" SMBus Connections on the iMac uses a write address of: 0x98 for the 8-bit SMC slave address. This is equivalent to a 0x4C 7-bit slave address:

0x98 = 1001 1000
0x4C = 0100 1100  (you can see that the 7-bit address is just bit-shifted to the right by 1)

So a GPU card with a ADM1032 thermal IC with a part marking "T1J" seems to work because it communicates on the 0x4C SMC address and will not cause an address collision with other thermal ICs on the logic board. In contrast, an ADM1032 chip with a part marking "T1C" is internally connected to 0x4D and therefore will not communicate with the imac SMC. An EMC1402-1 chip has a slave address of 1001_100 (corresponding to 7-bit 0x4C) and theoretically should also work, but there could be other interactions that are interfering with this. More investigation is necessary.

Here is Macs Fan Control:
View attachment 1876141

Let's take a closer look at this IC:
View attachment 1876140
You can see here, that it uses 2 Jumper resistors (lime green) to connect the SCL and SDA lines to the GPU. The pull up resistors are right next to them, both are 100KOhm I believe. I will as an experiment remove these 0 Ohm resistors and see what happens to the GPU temp read out, stay tuned. More research here is necessary.


Benchmark:
View attachment 1876142

Other members have been working on variants of this card, but be warned, these are experimental in nature and still have a lot of troubleshooting to get them working appropriately. They are painful to recover from a bad flash. It's been a long frustrating road with these class of cards, but nevertheless, it has always been insanely great!

Enjoy.​

That's really great and thanks for sharing!

I have a little detail to ask, however. AMD GPUs will (in my experience) always report (some) GPU temperature to Macs Fan Control, but they will not report the correct temperature to SMC (as reported by HWSensors/HWMonitor). That (invalid) SMC GPU die reading is also displayed in the upper right corner during the Valley benchmark. Did you get the same reading in the Valley benchmark and Macs Fan Control? If yes, I guess I should resume my experiments with ADM1032 and WX4150/WX4170!

 

[CY Yong]

Yup, i had it double checked.
So far all the connector are in correct position, but still lock at 1.6ghz

I guess my L5500 is gone.... Is that correct?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I guess my L5500 is gone.... Is that correct?

Yes, it is gone. You could have seen this using HW Monitor and checking the ambient temp sensor. It will only show 129C - with is equivalent to no data.

 

[CY Yong]

Yes, it is gone. You could have seen this using HW Monitor and checking the ambient temp sensor. It will only show 129C - with is equivalent to no data.

Thanks a lot again on this help.
It's 129.C....

I go through some comment, some say solder and joint it, some say buy the resistor to put it back.

May I get your advice which is better idea?

 

[m0bil]

Thanks a lot again on this help.
It's 129.C....

I go through some comment, some say solder and joint it, some say buy the resistor to put it back.

May I get your advice which is better idea?

It’s a coil (used as a filter), not a resistor. Your logic board pads are in place, so easiest fix is to just short (join) the pads.

 

[draskostar]

Can I flash custum rom on my dell precision laptop m6800 with k4100m dgpu. Would be there any benefits of doing this? Can I brick the dgpu?

 

[ReallyLongLogin]

Hi Everyone

I had so much fun with my last iMac upgrade that I'm attempting another, LOL. This time a mid 2011 27" iMac upgrading the CPU, BT/Wifi and attempting the GPU but hitting issues.

The GPU is a WX4150 (description from Aliexpress seller is "For Dell Precision 7510 7520 For HP Zbook15 G4 Radeon Pro WX 4150 WX4150 4GB MXM3.0 TYPE A Video GPU Card").

For some unknown reason the screen is going blank after boot. The open core picker shows, then the Apple logo and progress bar but it goes black during progress bar.

I've tried flashing with both WX4150_GOP.rom and WX4170_GOP_ALT_VRAM.rom linked from post #1.

Logging in from another Mac I can see that the graphics card is recognised but the display is not (see screenshots).

I can boot to the pre-configured Linux USB image from #13,624 and the display works no problem.

I can't test connecting a 2nd display to the iMac because I don't have a firewire connector (is there another method?).

Any suggestions?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Hi Everyone

I had so much fun with my last iMac upgrade that I'm attempting another, LOL. This time a mid 2011 27" iMac upgrading the CPU, BT/Wifi and attempting the GPU but hitting issues.

The GPU is a WX4150 (description from Aliexpress seller is "For Dell Precision 7510 7520 For HP Zbook15 G4 Radeon Pro WX 4150 WX4150 4GB MXM3.0 TYPE A Video GPU Card").

For some unknown reason the screen is going blank after boot. The open core picker shows, then the Apple logo and progress bar but it goes black during progress bar.

I've tried flashing with both WX4150_GOP.rom and WX4170_GOP_ALT_VRAM.rom linked from post #1.

Logging in from another Mac I can see that the graphics card is recognised but the display is not (see screenshots).

I can boot to the pre-configured Linux USB image from #13,624 and the display works no problem.

I can't test connecting a 2nd display to the iMac because I don't have a firewire connector (is there another method?).

Any suggestions?

1. You can try the miniDisplayPort to DisplayPort/HDMI/VGA cable/adapter for the second display. Firewire is for data transfer, not for video signal output.

2. You can try another OLCP version, sometimes older versions of OCLP are more compatible with a certain type of GPU.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Update: About AirPlay on Big Sur (and Monterey 12.3+) using AMD GPU:

short status update, please report your own different findings with same or different hardware on Big Sur and Monterey

+ AirPlay sound is working even to my 13 year old AirPort Express station and to my recent 4K AppleTV.
+ AirPlay sound and video works using Safari and playing a YouTube video on my 4K AppleTV
+ initial setup including pass phrase exchange works (enabled on AppleTV setup)
+ AirPlay to Mac works to and from my iMac12,2 WX4150 and iMac12,2 WX4150
+ AirPlay to Mac works to my iMac11,3 RX480 from both iMac12,2

- AirPlay to Mac from iMac11,3+ to iMac12,2 does not work (black screen 12,2)
- AirPlay Screen Mirroring or using the TV as external display does not work. Connection happens, status on iMac updated in display prefs, but the image will not be displayed and the TV remains black. Screen size adjustments does not change it.


current results:
YouTube sharing via Safari works
AirPlay to Mac only with iMac12,2+AMD GCN 4.0 dGPU
display sharing ends up in black screen

hardware setup:
iMac12,2 WX4170/WX5170 BCM94360CD and WiFi connected 4K AppleTV

software setup:
Big Sur 11.6 / Monterey 12.3.1
OCLP 0.4.4 using the iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS (default settings)
HD3000 iGPU disabled on all my systems (same as on Nvidia systems on Big Sur and later)

 

[Ausdauersportler]

The GPU is a WX4150 (description from Aliexpress seller is "For Dell Precision 7510 7520 For HP Zbook15 G4 Radeon Pro WX 4150 WX4150 4GB MXM3.0 TYPE A Video GPU Card").

For some unknown reason the screen is going blank after boot. The open core picker shows, then the Apple logo and progress bar but it goes black during progress bar.

I've tried flashing with both WX4150_GOP.rom and WX4170_GOP_ALT_VRAM.rom linked from post #1.

Logging in from another Mac I can see that the graphics card is recognised but the display is not (see screenshots).

I can boot to the pre-configured Linux USB image from #13,624 and the display works no problem.

I can't test connecting a 2nd display to the iMac because I don't have a firewire connector (is there another method?).

Any suggestions?

You may have a different card (2GB instead of 4GB), a wrong VRAM config or a bad card...

1. Any chance you saved the original vBIOS coming with the card?
2. Do you have a picture of the card showing type - size and company - the VRAM used??
3. Use the WX4150_GOP_ALT_VRAM.rom (not the WX4170)!
4. Are you sure you got a 4GB card not the 2GB card (picture needed, too)?

Added another 4150_GOP using a third new VRAM config. Give it a try...

 

[ReallyLongLogin]

Thanks @Nguyen Duc Hieu . Oh yes, I mean mini display port. I don't have a mini-display port cable/converter, so unable to test an external display. As for OCLP it is recent (REL-071-2021-07-02). Also during reinstallation of the logic board I noticed the connector near to the words BLK ACDC was empty, and couldn't find anything to plug in there. Is that normal? (image attached (not mine from internet).

You may have a different card (2GB instead of 4GB), a wrong VRAM config or a bad card...

1. Any chance you saved the original vBIOS coming with the card?
2. Do you have a picture of the card showing type - size and company - the VRAM used??
3. Use the WX4150_GOP_ALT_VRAM.rom (not the WX4170)!
4. Are you sure you got a 4GB card not the 2GB card (picture needed, too)?

Added another 4150_GOP using a third new VRAM config. Give it a try...

@Ausdauersportler - thanks!

1. the original vbios is attached.
2. no photo of the gpu sorry
3. whoops my typo. I mean 4150
4. no photo of the gpu sorry

Tried that third _XX vbios but now it is chime then blank screen from boot. Can connect to the iMac remotely but not via screensharing.

As always, please let me know anyway to contribute back here.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thanks @Nguyen Duc Hieu . Oh yes, I mean mini display port. I don't have a mini-display port cable/converter, so unable to test an external display. As for OCLP it is recent (REL-071-2021-07-02). Also during reinstallation of the logic board I noticed the connector near to the words BLK ACDC was empty, and couldn't find anything to plug in there. Is that normal? (image attached (not mine from internet).

@Ausdauersportler - thanks!

1. the original vbios is attached.
2. no photo of the gpu sorry
3. whoops my typo. I mean 4150
4. no photo of the gpu sorry

Tried that third _XX vbios but now it is chime then blank screen from boot. Can connect to the iMac remotely but not via screensharing.

As always, please let me know anyway to contribute back here.

Okay, try this! It is based on the 4150_GOP and your own vBIOS.

P.S.: Yes, the connector is empty. Before starting to disassemble just take a picture

 

[ReallyLongLogin]

Thank you @Ausdauersportler ! Unfortunately I am not having much luck. There is no OCLP picker or Apple logo/progress bar anymore. Just blank screen. MacOS (via remote controlled) recognises the GPU but not the display. Any suggestions? I'll have a dig around for a mini display port cable.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Thank you @Ausdauersportler ! Unfortunately I am not having much luck. There is no OCLP picker or Apple logo/progress bar anymore. Just blank screen. MacOS (via remote controlled) recognises the GPU but not the display. Any suggestions? I'll have a dig around for a mini display port cable.
View attachment 1877580

Assuming you installed OCLP onto the internal disk just reset the NVRAM on boot to get back the GOP picker.

Just cross checked all the 4150_GOP versions and your posted original one. You need to use the 4150_GOP.rom published by @internetzel. It has the correct and identical VRAM configuration.

My last idea would be you got by accident a WX4130 card (2GB). It would not harm to flash the WX4130_GOP vBIOS, in the worst case you won't get a working display, again

The ident strings of both cards are identical, it is only the VRAM which makes the difference.

BTW:
During the installation I have my SSD connected externally using an USB<->SATA connector. This way I can force boot order even without having a working GOP/OCLP boot picker.

 

[motorm3]

Update: About AirPlay on Big Sur (and Monterey):

short status update, please report your own different findings with same or different hardware on Big Sur and Monterey

+ AirPlay sound is working even to my 13 year old AirPort Express station and to my recent 4K AppleTV.
+ AirPlay sound and video works using Safari and playing a YouTube video on my 4K AppleTV
+ initial setup including pass phrase exchange works (enabled on AppleTV setup)

- AirPlay Screen Mirroring or using the TV as external display does not work. Connection happens, status on iMac updated in display prefs, but the image will not be displayed and the TV remains black. Screen size adjustments does not change it.

current results:
YouTube sharing via Safari works
display sharing ends up in black screen


hardware setup:
iMac12,2 WX4170/M5100 and an WiFi connected 4K AppleTV

software setup:
Big Sur 11.6 / Monterey RC2
OCLP 0.3.0 using the iMacPro1,1 SMBIOS (default settings)
HD3000 iGPU disabled on all my systems (same as on Nvidia systems on Big Sur and later)

IMac mid 2011 27 i7 2600 quadro k3100m airplay doesn't work its showing my denon avr4500h but it won't connect. Screen mirroring doesn't work.